i'm sam sacks in for tom hartman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture. president obama campaign in two thousand and eight on a promise to close guantanamo bay and in two thousand and nine he signed an executive order to do just that fast forward four years and get mo is still open and now the president has officially thrown in the towel in this fight i'll explain in just a moment. and president obama was in las vegas today speaking about the new bipartisan immigration reform effort while some republicans seem to be on board with this

bipartisan package is comprehensive immigration reform in america really a done deal. and we begin tonight in guantanamo bay for more than four years now president obama has made it look like he's trying to close the detention facility at gitmo he campaigned on a promise to close gitmo in reiterated this promise just after being elected in two thousand it take a look i have said repeatedly that i intend to close guantanamo and i will follow through on it and you will follow through on that then on january twenty second two thousand and nine and one of his first actions as president he signed an executive order calling for the closure of get mo within one year the president then created a special envoy post in early two thousand and nine dedicated exclusively to closing down gitmo this guy daniel fried was selected to the position and he spent

the next year traveling around the world finding willing partners to accept current detainees at gitmo who would be released once the prison closes so early on when it came to closing gitmo the ball was moving forward. but then the president crashed head first into the post nine eleven political reality in america and in particular in congress right off the bat in may of two thousand and nine the senate blocked eighty million dollars requested by the president to close gitmo it was a ninety to six vote with nearly all the democrats and every single republican senator joining together to sabotage the president's efforts to close the facility now faced with this opposition the president didn't double down on his efforts to remove this the scar from our national moral character instead retreated in july two thousand and nine the president issued a six month extension to his pledge to close gitmo within one year and at the end of two thousand and nine on december sixteenth he made one more effort to close the

facility ordering his attorney general and defense secretary to buy a state prison in illinois for three hundred fifty million dollars to replace good mo but a few months later the house armed services committee headed up by democrats blocked those funds again placing a giant roadblock in front of the president's plans to close gitmo at this point the lack of fight on the part of the obama administration was becoming apparent as the new york times reports and in an interview with democratic senator carl levin in june of two thousand and ten quote there is a lot of inertia against closing the prison and the administration is not putting a lot of energy behind their position that i can see said sen carl levin the michigan democrat who is chairman of the senate armed services committee and supports the illinois plan he added that the odds are that it will still be open by the next presidential inauguration. so with a little pressure coming from the white house congressional democrats decided it's

not worth sticking their necks out to help close gitmo either when their final moves as the majority in the house democrats passed a year and spending bill in december of two thousand and ten that a good block funding to transfer get most detainees and also block detainees from being transferred to the united states and to a slew of other nations a month later republicans would take control of the house of representatives and president obama's best chance of closing gitmo in those first two years of his administration would be completely lost hypno would remain open his entire first term and as senator carl levin predicted in june two thousand and ten good mo remained open for the next presidential inauguration two currently there are still one hundred sixty six detainees at gitmo eighty seven of who are approved for release but are barred from being released four detainees have died at the faculty since president obama took office and currently five get motive to knees and clued in collegiate mohammed are facing

a military trial at the facility that's fraught with questions about torture and frequently interrupted by a sensor button that cuts off audio and video of the trial to reporters and the media get no remains a moral black eye on the united states and a terrorist recruiting tool abroad the promise made on the campaign trail to close gitmo has now been met the one year deadline imposed in two thousand and nine to close gitmo came and went but what happened to that special envoy remember daniel fried that guy the guy at the start of the president's first term who is specifically assigned to closing gitmo well yesterday we learned that freed was reassigned to do work for the state department on iran in syria as special envoy post devoted to closing gitmo. it won't be filled it will disappear and its vacancy will be more confirmation that president obama never had the stomach for

this fight to begin with yes much of the blame for get most staying open rests squarely on congress not on the president after all had congress consented with the president's request for funding to transfer detainees to illinois would be an empty shell today but as we've seen over and over and over again with the public option cap and trade the disclose act the bush tax cuts labor struggles in wisconsin you name it when the going gets tough the president gets going he had numerous opportunities to fight congress on this issue but he remained silent and then embraced mortgage momentary tribunals perhaps he was worried that a prolonged battle over good mo would de rail his domestic agenda and he may have been right but heading into a second term get more was no longer a priority like it was in the president's first term he's now accepted to be defeat as you alluded to in his second inaugural he's content with polishing his progressive legacy through more civil rights victories like the repeal of don't ask don't tell by focusing on marriage equality equal pay for equal work for women and

immigration reform all of which may really be regarded in time as significant historic victories. but in a nation gripped by economic calamity and never ending wars the president's focus is in my opinion misguided. after freed's departure yesterday a spokesperson for the office told the new york times quote we remain committed to closing guantanamo and doing so in a responsible fashion and quote well excuse me if i follow up on senator carl levin's prediction from two years ago and say that get no will likely remain open for the next inauguration to in two thousand and sixteen. all right now it's time to turn things over to tonight's politics panel on the panel tonight are francesca chambers editor and publisher regular politics richard fowler progressive strategist and host of the richard belzer show and beenz cohen a senior online editor at the daily caller thank you all for being here let's get

started so you guys heard my rant this is a bipartisan issue i mean democrats and republicans have worked in congress to keep guantanamo bay open why is neither party interested in shutting it down let's start with the french and certainly i don't think it's necessarily that the parties are not interested in shutting it down the issue is that the president has not proposed a plan yet that they think that they think is acceptable and you know moving the detainees to illinois is just not an acceptable plan and part of the reason is that if these people are really as violent as they say that they are which is the reason why they're being detained these are not violent criminals that we necessarily want you know in the united states in illinois i am from kansas which is near leavenworth which was another site that they wanted to move them to originally and i know that that was a you know a huge issue with the leavenworth site as well i know we get these arguments the the nimby arguments not in my backyard i don't want these terrorists in my backyard first off there's already over three hundred people in u.s. prisons on u.s. soil in the united states who are facing terrorism charges and none of them are

causing chaos around communities it's not like these guys are breaking down nuclear reactors that need to be controlled they're not going to cause harm to people's homes i mean it. right richard i think you're completely right on this sam i think if you put them in a super maximum security prison there's not really much they can do you put them behind bars they put them behind barbed wire you put them in the middle of nowhere there's not very much you can do i think beyond the point we've seen from the congress is on the willingness for them to actually put it close to get more i really don't think you can win the president for this and here's why someone rather than very clear about his mission on guantanamo bay and beyond be very clear about it he has already started the process he put the body in charge but every time congress has blocked a serious side for it he was reassigned because they don't feel he's a he's resigned because congress says you can't move i mean the last defense authorization bill is that no movement in guantanamo but have under john boehner the house of representatives and he's totally given up and i was totally given up i think the president has learned that being president is not quite as easy as just saying something should be done i think he's learned a lot about national security while he's been in office and neck on top of i think

one of those important to an important issue because you know the president did his first act as president was to say that with this we should close guantanamo as you've noted and and eight is where it is now because he really hasn't been adamant about the issue he's kind of mentioned it from time to time when it's been brought up now it's been brought up in the press i wouldn't be surprised to hear the president address it again soon but the reality is that we have a place in cuba where we can keep military detainees with military guard and a military base and these guys are involved effectively in war crimes and i think that that's what we're president of these guys i mean we've this facility is housed about eight hundred people five hundred of which have been let go i mean these people were picked up on afghan battlefields because they had some grudge with a warlord or because they were wearing the wrong casio watch or something when he was eight or because they were being paid to drop a bomb somewhere or you know if there's only one reason to wonder why don't we uphold our american principle take these people who we say are terrorists and bring them to trial here in the united states you want to show you somebody to a.s.m. trial the way clean shaikh muhammad has been has played out people don't want him

in the united states they want him before a military tribunal they don't have this is because this is war this is not like a civilian trial that we have four. war two americans these are people who are looking to kill americans and that's why i want tom obey as a military detention facility is an important asset for the united states i would have is likely not to do something because they want to kill americans and be prosecuted in the united states where this is their game that is totally different these people are not americans they do not against america and it's the same bag of terrorism and they do not have the same rights that americans do and that's a big difference between and timothy mcveigh so that's a completely ridiculous i'm hearing somewhat all because of one of the of an american want to bore i want to broaden did that. mean i didn't have exactly american rights sir but i want to go back to i want to go back to you saying that this isn't president obama's fault which i which i think we can both agree is completely ridiculous to say that no you know what obama is going on here he said the president is a way. you purchased presence of put these folks he said somebody at the front of

congress to take these folks back now at the same time as a republican that's the way i'm going to show them john lee and again i don't know you completely given up he isn't even sure what you want to do what you have here and what he was going to have to come up with that it is very clear that is what are going to block what do you want them to do isn't one closing guantanamo has always been a symbolic gesture by the president it's never been that serious it's something he wanted to do with symbolism to show that he's repairing the hearts that the united states has caused the world but the truth is i think he's overstated the how much the united states has hurt the earth and also you know the reality is he just can't close i mean we've got a retired marine corps general. joseph hoar they wrote you know good moves morally and financially expensive symbol of detainee abuse will remain open while in the future congress are all too willing to undermine our deals in the names of fighting terror terrorism i mean these are military leaders saying this no i think defense is right that it i mean let's be honest here you probably can't get it close but all i'm saying is that it's not like the president's even trying anymore he's completely given up his second term on that first term promise which is sort of i feel like i don't want to destroy the group you're going to is going to they did

block the funding to move these people but the president could go through the department of justice file official charges if you are going to call.